New to the Foundation for 2024 is the Improving Access to Outpatient Behavioral Counseling Project, a pilot project aimed at providing funding for the behavioral health counseling needs of school-aged children.

One of the core missions of the Bo Tkach Foundation has been providing a portion of its fundraising to contract with local behavioral health professionals for students who need financial assistance in obtaining counseling services. However, since the COVID pandemic, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of schools requesting these funds for counseling authorizations.

Following a recent survey conducted by the Foundation with the nine school districts supported by these funds, it was discovered that many of these schools now have outside mental health provider contracts for school-based counseling services. However, it was also made clear in the survey that for privately insured children and their families, there was a missing piece of financial assistance for those unable or unwilling to cover the cost of insurance co-pays and deductibles which impedes a child’s access to receive this necessary care.

Our mission at the Bo Tkach Foundation has always been to assist our school communities with removing whatever barriers stand between a child in need of behavioral health treatment and their access to a licensed behavioral health therapist. To this end, the foundation decided to not only continue providing funding authorizations for those therapists we already contract with, but for 2024, we also are offering a one-time $2000 award to each of our nine supported school districts to be used to purchase professional counseling services for any child in need. Funds can be used to directly reimburse a licensed provider or, if need be, to assist a family/child in covering the costs of a private insurance co-pay.

At the conclusion of this school year, we will gather data from the schools to assess the value of this new project as we strive to find new ways of making access to behavioral health counseling and care a reality for any child.